Iran: Apology to Turkey Shows Israel is Soft

Turkey "showed us we can take what we want to take from Israel," says Iranian ambassador to Ankara.

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Gil Ronen, 07/04/13 19:27

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

AFP photo

Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Alireza Bikdeli was quoted Saturday as saying that his country has learned a lesson from the Israeli apology to Turkey: "In the past three years, Turkey, with its constant resistance, showed us we can take what we want to take from Israel," Bikdeli told the Anadolu Agency.

The ambassador praised Turkey's role in hosting the negotiations with the P5+1 powers over Teheran's nuclear weapons program. While the latest round of talks has been taking place in Kazakhstan, the first round of talks was held in Turkey last April.

The bilateral relations between Turkey and Iran "had a good effect on everything else," he said. "That is why we made sure to keep holding negotiations in Istanbul."

Bikdeli has stated he does not see a problem which might damage Turkey-Iran relations in the long term and said that the two countries' enduring positive relations would help to solve the problem in Syria.

Bikdeli said that "some dirty hands" were trying to turn Syria into "a new Afghanistan in the Middle East."